St Vincent's Catholic Primary School

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”
Psalm 133.1

Music

Music Curriculum Intent

Our intention is that all young Vincentians will experience success as a musician by studying music throughout their time at St Vincent’s.

Performing and listening to music from EYFS to year six will bring children at St Vincent’s together to join in with the same experiences as a school community. At St Vincent’s, music is threaded through our project-based learning approach to ensure children explore and appreciate music from different time periods and cultures.

By the end of year six, all children will have engaged in a music curriculum that promotes their long-term enjoyment of music. A year six pupil will be equipped with skills for communication, self expression and creative thinking. The music curriculum will give all children opportunities to develop self confidence and a belief in celebrating individuality. All pupils will develop qualities that they can use in all aspects of life such as determination, supporting others and working as a team.

By the end of year six, children will have partaken in a broad spectrum of musical activities ranging from playing tuned and untuned instruments, rhythm work, composing and performing to listening and appreciating music from a variety of different composers, styles and cultures.
At St Vincent’s, the music environment fosters a sense of community in various school events e.g. our annual Carols in Gallery, Christmas Nativities, Easter Reflections and end of year productions. All pupils have opportunities to choose to take part in extracurricular music lessons or singing.

Music National Curriculum Objectives

Click link above to download a copy of the Department of Education's Music national curriculum objectives.

Curriculum Intent

At St Vincent’s it is our INTENT is to enable ALL children to thrive through the opportunities we provide them with, in order to:

Curriculum Context

St Vincent’s is a 1.5 form entry school with 285 children ranging from 4 -11. Children come predominantly from the parishes of Sacred Heart in Mill Hill and St Anthony’s in Edgware.

Children come from a diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds, speak 17 different languages and hail from 26 different ethnic groups. The curriculum we present, and promote, to the children is an endeavour to reflect these differences by providing opportunities to explore the different countries, languages and customs our children are part of through the projects they investigate. We have looked closely at the context of our school, the backgrounds of the children and how life is for a child growing up in North London today. We have used the underlying principles of our Catholic Faith and the example of our namesake St Vincent to create a set of values which lie at the heart of our curriculum.

We are aware of the changing nature of society and the pressures faced by young children as they enter the next stage of their education. The rise in Mental Health related issues has been widely documented across the media. Therefore, issues such as internet safety and the enormous impact across society of social media are at the forefront of our minds when planning our curriculum. With the current worldwide concerns relating to Covid 19, racial justice, equality and diversity, as well as gender and economic background, we feel it is our duty to prepare the children through a concerted focus on building independence, resilience and communication skills linked to our Vincentian Values.